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OWUOHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY | WINTER 2020 MAGAZINE Welcome to Washington! One of OWU’s favorite cities IN THIS ISSUE CAREER CONNECTIONS LIVE FROM NEW YORK HOMECOMING PHOTOS Stuyvesant Hall and a fresh blanket of snow. (Photo by Mark Schmitter ’12) 24 14 features 14 Capitalizing on Life Alumni reflect on why Washington, D.C., is one of OWU’s favorite cities. 24 Career Connections New program redefines career services to help students become “life ready.” 30 30 Live From New York … It’s the New York Arts Program! departments OWU junior at SNL connects with OWU alumnus. 2 LEADER’S LETTER On the cover: Sara Amy Leach ’80 at one of her 4 FROM THE JAYWALK favorite places to walk in D.C., the National Mall. 8 COMFORT ZONES Cover design by Jennifer Brinckerhoff BISHOP BATTLES 10 Cover photo by Mike Morgan 11 ALUMNI PROFILE 12 CLASS ACTS 13 TIMESCAPES 32 ALUMNI HAPPENINGS 34 CALENDAR 35 GIFTS & GRATITUDE 36 FACULTY NOTES 38 CLASS NOTES 48 MY BACK PAGES WINTER 2020 | 1 leader’sletter Rock Jones greets 2019 graduate Lexi Heberle at Commencement. Lexi triple-majored in psychology, neuroscience, and zoology, and she is working as a mental health technician at Sun Behavioral Health in Columbus and is applying to graduate school. Preparing students for a meaningful life – and a good job ometimes in today’s world there 85 percent of those in the work force “Internships and apprenticeships seems to be a new parlor game gaining a first job in their expressed field were deemed particularly valuable, that challenges players to one-up of interest. with 93% of executives and 94% of Seach other claiming that a liberal arts These data are consistent with what hiring managers indicating that they education cannot prepare students for corporate and nonprofit leaders in the would be more likely to hire a recent lives of meaningful work and a salary United States indicate they seek when graduate who has held an internship to support a reasonable standard of looking for college graduates to employ or apprenticeship with a company or living. A quick survey of Ohio Wesleyan in their organizations. The Harvard organization.” graduates, both those who graduated Business Review recently (September Broad learning, cross-cutting skills, half a century or more ago and those 19, 2019) reported the results of the internships and apprenticeships. who graduated in the past decade, Association of American Colleges and It is no wonder that Ohio Wesleyan shows this is not the case. Universities survey of 501 executives students are so well prepared for Our alumni, benefitting from and 500 hiring managers at private the workplace. Our curriculum has the rigor of an education that gives sector and hiring organizations, noting, long valued learning that blends exposure to a wide range of disciplines “employers overwhelmingly endorse theory and practice, giving students while also demanding mastery of the broad learning and cross-cutting skills the opportunity to complement content and methods of one or more as the best preparation for long-term meticulous work in the classrooms, major disciplines of study, move quickly career success. The college learning laboratories, and performance halls to the work force and to jobs that are outcomes they rate as most important with practical, real-world experiences. meaningful and rewarding in every way. are oral communication, critical thinking, While these experiences are increasingly Surveys of recent graduates have found ethical judgment, working effectively commonplace among the nation’s top that within six months of graduation 96 in teams, written communication, and liberal arts colleges, Ohio Wesleyan was percent of our graduates are in full-time the real-world application of skills and a pioneer in offering academic credit for jobs or full-time graduate study, with knowledge. internships and apprenticeships. 2 | OWU In the middle of the last century, central to the Career Connection, but the Institute for Practical Government the services provided to students are far and Public Affairs at OWU developed more comprehensive. the Wesleyan in Washington program The Career Connection builds OWUOHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY to give students the opportunity to on our longstanding commitment to MAGAZINE spend a semester in our nation’s capital, support students in connecting their completing both internships and passions and intellectual capacities WINTER 2020 | Volume 96 Issue No. 3 independent with careers studies. This is that make a www.owu.edu/alumni the work that It is no wonder that Ohio difference in Ohio Wesleyan Alumni Online Community happens at the the larger world. Vice President intersection Wesleyan students are so well Indeed, the for University Advancement of theory prepared for the workplace. charter of Ohio Natalie M. Doan, J.D. ’03 and practice, Wesleyan written Editor and Chief Communications Officer and it is the in 1842 indicated Will Kopp ideal way to bring practical learning to that our education was “to be designed [email protected] a liberal arts education. For decades, for the benefit of citizens in general.” Managing Editor OWU students have benefitted from We fulfill this historic commitment Lisa Lopez Snyder internships in government agencies, when our students are prepared to nongovernmental organizations, think be entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, Director of Alumni Relations Katie Webster tanks, media outlets, museums, and corporate leaders, public servants, other settings in Washington, D.C. educators, and humanitarians whose Class Notes Editor In November of this year, the Ohio careers are both personally fulfilling and Amanda Zechiel-Keiber ’09 Wesleyan New York Arts Program of service to the greater humankind. [email protected] will celebrate 50 years of continuous This is the essence of an OWU Editorial Assistant opportunity for students from OWU education. Maddie Marusek ’22 and other colleges and universities to In this issue of OWU Magazine, Designer spend a semester in New York City. The you will read in particular about the Jennifer Brinckerhoff semester includes an internship and Career Connection and Wesleyan in seminars in writing and publishing; visual Washington programs and the life of Contributing Photographers arts and art history; music, sound and our graduates in the nation’s capital. I James DeCamp, Lisa DiGiacomo, Rick Harrison, Mike Morgan, film; and theatre and dance. invite you to think about the ways Ohio Mark Schmitter ’12, Paul Vernon, While the connection of theory Wesleyan prepared you to find meaning Jayne Wexler, Reilly Wright ’20 and practice is longstanding at Ohio and purpose in your careers as you read Contributing Writers Wesleyan, in the past two years we have how this continues to happen on our Cole Hatcher, Caitlin Jefferson ’22, made a major commitment to enhance campus today. Natalie Kopp, Carrie Madren ’02, our work with students in preparation That’s a parlor game of a different Noah Manskar ’15 for careers that will be rewarding and sort; but then OWU is an institution of a Editorial Board fulfilling. different sort, as well. Dale Brugh, Erin Fletcher, The OWU Career Connection Shala Hankison ’95, Stefanie Niles, works closely with other aspects of The Mike Plantholt, Eugene Rutigliano, OWU Connection signature program to Nancy Bihl Rutkowski, Doug Zipp engage students from their first days on Office of University Communications campus to the early years beyond their 740-368-3335 graduation in thinking about the career Rock Jones Alumni Relations Office paths that will be most meaningful for President, Ohio Wesleyan University 740-368-3325 each individual student. Internships are Twitter: @owu_rockjones [email protected] Website: www.owu.edu OWU Magazine: owu.edu/magazine The Ohio Wesleyan Magazine ISSN 0030-1221 Share Email us at OWU Magazine Letters may be [email protected], tweet Office of Communications edited for length your @OhioWesleyan 61 S. Sandusky St. and clarity. opinions or send us a letter: Delaware, OH 43015 WINTER 2020 | 3 jaywalkfrom the Student scientists learn, grow during summer research program Student project offers net benefits Combining her classroom knowledge, internship experience at a public utilties department, and her research skills from the Summer Science Research Program, Brianna Graber ’20 used Theory- to-Practice Grant funds to design and install a storm drain net in the Delaware Run, which flows through campus and into the Olentangy River. This net, one of the first of its kind in the nation, will prevent both trash and organic materials from polluting the river. A zoology major and Spanish minor, Graber chose this project for her OWU Geography 360 class because she “wanted to do something big.” Part of the project involves monitoring the health of the Delaware Run. The project will provide data that has not previously been a focus of research. Brianna Graber says her project is expected to also improve the health of the Olentangy River, a tributary of the Delaware Run. Accelerating arsenic atoms Colin Hawes ’20 worked with physics and astronomy professor Robert Haring-Kaye to investigate the orbitals of arsenic atoms. The most memorable part of the experience? “Operating the particle accelerator” at Florida State University, says Hawes. 4 | OWU Collaborative learning Collaborating with faculty provides plenty of Flying drones in Delaware opportunities to strengthen bonds between professors Under geography professor Nathan Amador Rowley’s guidance and students. Zoology professor Shala Hankison ’95 (left) and in conjunction with the City of Delaware, Kait Aromy ’20 and Jennell Betts ’20 (right) studied paternity and mating (left) and Aliyah Hannig ’21 (right) used drones to monitor DelCo behaviors in the sailfin molly. reservoirs for algal blooms. “The most memorable part was learning how to fly the drone for the first time,” says Hannig. Watching wren behavior Engaging in a combination of field work and lab work, Abbigail Turner ’20 (left), Moira Meehan ’20 (right), and zoology professor Dustin Reichard researched whether mate switching is an adaptive behavior in house wrens.